Serena, the central figure in these linked stories and a born New Yorker, is outrageous, stubborn, mystical and deeply engaged with love of all kinds: emotional, physical, intellectual, and with intimacy that extends into the wider realms beyond the visible world. The stories begin with her birth and follow her life and the lives of her friends and lovers. We meet Ingrid, artist and wild woman; Rose, sensible and intelligent, with a dry wit; Leo, architect and musician, a compassionate, soulful and endearing man and many others, whose origins and connected lives reveal the paradoxes, struggles, bliss and complexities of love. The stories embrace the sensual world and the capacity to hold it with an open heart. They explore the grace of loving in a variety of ways.

As Dancing Home unfolds, Serena’s intuition leads her to an enhanced relationship with a larger reality and the challenges of integrating that world with ordinary life.

Ultimately, this puzzle of who the characters are and the nature of their intertwined lives plays itself out and comes to a fluid conclusion.

Dancing Home is a love affair with New York and to the affairs of love.

   In this book, Julie Winter touches on areas of the human experience that I have read nowhere else in any literature anywhere. Serena is a unique character, and this is a unique book. A must read for anyone interested in the journey inward.
— ALAN ARKIN
Academy Award Winning Actor, Author, Writer, Director

   Dancing Home is a collection of linked stories, written by Julie Winter, that draws on her years of experience of meditation, spiritual practice and teaching. The stories are held together by a cord that vibrates with a life lived in her home, Manhattan, NY. Winter speaks eloquently of a universe inhabited by guardians and animal spirits that infuse the hearts and souls of her characters. The rituals are here: “You are going to be born, going to be our baby,” spoken by her mother after the loss of a daughter at birth; funerals—the loss of an adored father; family feasts and celebrations and the change of seasons. She offers each reader the possibility of a personal journey that her most practical character refers to as, “The way to do.” Perhaps for us, it is “The way to be.”
   Read this book slowly . . . Savor it. Like Julie, it is a treasure.
— PAUL BINDER
Founder of The Big Apple Circus, Author

   Julie Winter has created a world of vivid detail where beauty and suffering are gracefully intertwined. Serena’s haunting vulnerability and courage to pursue her purpose and to seek what lies beyond our limited perceptions in a world that may be in opposition more often than not is a beautiful reminder for us to stay curious and trust our own journeys as they unfold.
   We experience Serena’s joys and pain which reflect the duality of the human experience. In her story, we realize that both can exist as healing takes place.
— ASHLEY TORRENT
Writer, Psycho-spiritual Counselor, Reiki Practitioner

   Julie Winter, well known as a brilliant teacher, healer and psycho-spiritual therapist for many years, gifts us with her talents as a storyteller. With this quintessential New York love story, she evokes the bravery of a young girl's emergence into of the joys and pitfalls of womanhood. What's more, we are allowed to follow the extraordinary woman she becomes as she navigates the complexities of lovers, friends and community while encompassing an astonishing spiritual awakening.
— IONE
Author, Playwright, Director

   Such a beautiful book! Julie Winter has a rich inner life!
— PHILIP CORNER
Composer, Visual Artist

   Reading this book is an invitation into a world rich with texture, vivid descriptions, emotional aliveness. It offers a journey into a life touched by the magic of a mind open to adventures in consciousness and also a rich dive into the complexities, joys, and challenges of navigating deep human relationships. I found myself wanting to keep reading, to continue immersing myself in the beautiful writing that painted pictures in my imagination.
— Nancy J. Napier, LMFT
Author, Sacred Practices for Conscious Living

   Julie reads an excerpt from the Dancing Home story Hooks and Stars as part of a virtual presentation and reading on Zoom by the Ministry of Maåt on March 7, 2021. The session is hosted by Ione, CEO at Ministry of Maåt. This video an edited segment from the presentation.
   The full Zoom presentation can be viewed [ HERE ].

Julie Winter presents Dancing Home at the launch party at Tibet House US on December 15, 2019.

Julie and Ione, CEO at Ministry of Maåt, sat down together one afternoon in late Summer to talk about the origins of Dancing Home and various aspects of bringing the book to print.